Suzuki has ended its works participation in MotoGP and the World Endurance Championship at the end of the 2022 season. The GSX-R1000R has also been discontinued in Japan, but we hope that it will be revived in the future to keep the lights of motorsports burning.
I want the technology of the champion machine GSX-RR to be utilized.
Suzuki has announced that it will redirect its technological and human resources cultivated through racing activities toward the realization of a sustainable society and the challenge of creating a new motorcycle business, and has ended its works participation in motorcycle racing as of 2022.
At the same time, production of the GSX-R1000R was discontinued in Europe and Japan.
Support for users continues, so Yoshimura will be competing for the championship in the World Endurance Championship in 2023 and will continue its activities in 2024.
Meanwhile, Team KAGAYAMA, which has been competing in the All-Japan Championship with Suzuki, will switch machines to Ducati in 2024.
If this continues, Suzuki's lights in motorcycle motorsports could go out.
However, Suzuki has a history of returning to MotoGP in 2015 after withdrawing from the sport in 2011. During its hiatus, some members of the team developed a parallel four-cylinder machine, which led to the GSX-RR's title win in 2020.
Also, the technologies that were used in MotoGP for 10 years from 2002 with the V4 GSV-R, such as the variable valve mechanism and finger-follower rocker arm, have been adopted in the 2017 GSX-R1000R, and it will be the next turn to apply the GSX-RR technology to a production vehicle. And we hope that they will challenge new technologies in MotoGP again.
GSX-RR [SUZUKI] Photo shows the 2017 model. The idea was to use a parallel 4-cylinder engine with the same model as the production model to compete in races, so we expect the new GSX-R to reflect this technology.
Joan Mir and his GSX-RR won the title in 2020. Suzuki's MotoGP budget is said to be a fraction of Honda's, and the crown was achieved through a steady stream of minor improvements.
Illustration of the GSX-RR from a patent filed during its development in 2013. You can see that the parallel 4-cylinder engine is tilted quite forward and has a complex shape.
From a 2013 patent. An illustration of the GSX-RR engine and chassis mounted on the then GSX-R1000 also exists. Was it intended to tie the GSX-RR to production?
GSV-R adopted the V4 to take advantage of the RGV-Γ500 chassis. The technology developed here is utilized in the most recent GSX-R1000R, and MotoGP plays an important role as a leading development.
